A total
of 104 U.S. Representatives, including 30
from California, sent a bipartisan letter today sponsored by Rep.
Henry Waxman to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, urging him to approve a
waiver that California and 10 other states need to
implement their clean cars program, which will limit global warming pollution
and other harmful emissions from cars and SUVs.
“While the Bush administration
sits on its hands, California is taking action to reduce global
warming pollution and other harmful emissions from cars and SUVs. The federal government should not try to
block this kind of progress,” said Environment California Global Warming
Advocate Jason Barbose.
The Clean
Air Act allows California to adopt motor vehicle emissions
standards that are more protective than federal minimum
standards. Other states then can adopt the stronger California
standards, as 10 states have done
since 2004. Motor vehicle sales in the 11
states that have so far adopted the standards amount to about one-third
of all
new vehicles sold nationwide each year.
For California to implement the standards,
however, EPA must grant the state a waiver under section 209(b) of the Clean
Air Act, which California has requested. The waiver
requirement aims to ensure that state standards are at least as protective as
the federal standards. Barbose noted EPA
has routinely granted California’s waiver requests more than 40
times in the last three decades.
However,
EPA has failed to act on the request, and today Representative Waxman, along
with 103 Members of Congress, including 29 from California, sent a letter to
EPA Administrator Johnson urging him to take swift action to “allow California
and ten other leading states to adopt technically feasible and cost-effective
emissions standards to reduce global warming pollution from new passenger
vehicles.”
“Representative
Waxman is fighting for California’s global warming solutions in Washington.
We commend him for his leadership,” said Barbose.
Cars,
SUVs, and other transportation sources account for one-third of total U.S. global warming emissions.
The California standards begin with the 2009
model year and phase-in gradually over eight years. By the 2016 model
year, they would cut global warming pollution from new vehicles by almost 30
percent.
“The only
reason the Bush administration has failed to give the green light to these
common sense standards is its loyalty to big polluters,” concluded Barbose.
